News Elite 10

VICTORIA — They say curling is a game of inches but Saturday night at the Elite 10 proved it’s a game of half-inches.

Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., advanced to the final of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling match play event on a draw-to-the-button shootout over Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock. Both skips landed on the lid with their draws, however, Gushue was just half an inch closer to the pin for the 1-up win. 

The intensity extended to the adjacent sheet where Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers also punched his ticket to the final in the extra end drawing to the Sportsnet logo to edge Calgary’s Kevin Koe 1-up. 

Gushue had one word to describe the thrilling finish: “Stressful.” 

“Especially having the hammer coming home, all we had to do was get our point and we played a poor end,” he explained. “Steve and his team played a perfect end and I didn’t even have a shot on my last one. Draw-to-the-buttons are a coin toss at this level and it came down to half an inch. We were 2.3 and they were 2.8. Both of us made great shots and fortunately, we came out on the right side of it.” 

Carruthers was also unnerved by the finish. 

“Really intense,” he said. “I guess if that was an extra end we’d have the hammer but it’s almost more pressure because you’re playing skins and it’s tough. Talk about an exciting finish on both sheets. I’m almost shaken by that experience.” 

Gushue got off to a good start against Laycock making a stellar in-off shot in the first to squeeze in to take the end and went 2-up on a steal in the second when Laycock rolled heavy on a draw with his last. Three consecutive pushes followed and Gushue had Laycock on the ropes in six, but couldn’t put the game away and came up light on his draw for another push. Laycock charged back to make it all square with a deuce in seven to take the end and a steal in eight to force the shootout. 

Meanwhile, Carruthers actually declined opening with the hammer in order to choose rock colour.

“I actually went and looked at all of the games that were on the sheet and in most of the games red was winning on that sheet,” Carruthers said. “We played with both stones and had won with both sets but in our game against Charley Thomas we weren’t in love with the set that we used so we went to our default, the games that we had our best game with. You just go with what you know and what you like.” 

At first it looked like the strategy had backfired as Carruthers was a foot heavy on his final shot in the first end and Koe counted a deuce to go 1-up. Carruthers bounced back with an in-off for a deuce in the second end to tie it. A measurement led to a push in three and Carruthers took the fourth to go 1-up when Koe clipped a guard on his last. Three straight pushes followed with Carruthers holding the hammer coming home, but Koe put on the pressure and stole the end to require the decisive draw-to-the-button. 

The top-seeded Gushue enters the final with an unblemished 4-1-0-0 record including a shootout win over Carruthers in the opening draw. Carruthers recovered from the Gushue loss rolling to a 4-0-1-0 record heading into the championship game.

“It’s going to be a battle,” Gushue said. “We played him in the first game this week and it came down to a draw-to-the-button as well and that one was close. I would say it’s going to come down to the last end and maybe even another draw-to-the-button for the win. They’re very good with rocks in play, they enjoy it, and it’s going to be an exciting game.” 

The team of Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker have had an incredible run in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling this season and will play in their fourth final through five events. 

“We get up to play the top teams and the ice is generally really good at the Slams,” said Gushue, who defeated Carruthers in the National final in November to earn his fourth Grand Slam title. “We’ve had some good timing, really, when it comes down to it. The fields are so good you have to have a bit of luck to get to four or five finals. This week we were pretty fortunate and haven’t necessarily been playing our best but we’ve come up against guys who played maybe their weaker game of the week against us so we’re lucky to be in there. Hopefully tomorrow we can come out with our best.” 

Carruthers is supported by third Braeden Moskowy, second Derek Samagalski, and lead Colin Hodgson. 

Watch the final Sunday at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT on Sportsnet.

NOTES: The Elite 10 uses a match play format where teams attempt to win the most ends per game by either scoring two or more points (with hammer) or stealing at least one point (without hammer). … New rules for the event this year are tick shots are not allowed on guards sitting on the centre line during the first five rocks of play and sweepers cannot use stopwatches.